45,000 square feet of empty studio space. 40 art students. No constraints.
For a few hours this weekend, students and public alike will be able to preview the fruits of all of UCLA’s art graduate students’ labor. This season’s Graduate Open Studios, which constitutes the culmination of two or three years’ work for the students, takes place this Saturday between 6 and 9 p.m. All Master of Fine Arts students are given studio space in the Warner Building, the UCLA art graduate studios in Culver City, where the bi-annual exhibition takes place.
The open studios are part of the examination process for the graduate students. Russell Ferguson, chair of the UCLA art department, explained that the exhibition’s role is to aid the students’ artistic development.
“The Graduate Open Studios is part of an ongoing process of evaluation. Most of the people participating in the program are real artists at this point, and they are treated as such,” Ferguson said. “They are, however, also still students in a sense, with a clear aim of becoming professional artists. Students have lots of feedback from faculty members, and a lot of their work is the result of dialogue between them.”
Barbara Drucker, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, said she sees the evening as an integral part of the students’ development.
“I think it’s very important ““ it’s sort of like a mini-exhibition that happens twice a year. It’s terrific to see what everybody’s doing. Everybody’s excited, they put their best work out,” Drucker said.
The exhibition will feature artwork from this year’s graduate art students, from a range of mediums including sculpture, painting, photography, performance and film.
Ferguson described the exhibition as providing the faculty with an overview of the current artwork being developed by the students, and the students with an opportunity to speak to members of the faculty and to review each other’s work.
The exhibition also functions to give the public a taste of what’s going on in the UCLA art scene.
Art graduate student and video artist Owen Kydd will be among the MFA student artists exhibited and will show his video installations. The 30-second pieces use static camera angles to produce an effect more like photographs than videos. According to Kydd, viewers will discern small changes, movements and shifts in light within frames of street scenes.
“I’m looking at the boundary between photography and video. I’m asking the question whether or not you can combine the two into one medium,” Kydd said.
Kydd said that he wishes to draw the viewer into his video installations. He would like his audience to have a sense of the present when they view his work and to find their role within the space around the art piece.
“I’d like viewers to have a sense that they’ve participated in something that I’ve also participated in. Whatever that is, an idea of being in company of the subjects of the images, as well as the moment when I’m taking the images,” Kydd said.
Previous open studios have included giant wooden dinosaurs, televisions roped to the floor and even a construction site floor recreated on the ceiling. According to Ferguson, the open studios allow students a greater freedom in developing their work.
“One of the hallmarks of our department is that we don’t teach a particular style. We encourage the students to pursue their ideas wherever these might take them; we don’t encourage them to play it safe,” Ferguson said.
Drucker said she agrees that the absolute lack of constraints on the students is vital.
“In this graduate program, the students are given complete creative freedom. They’re encouraged to experiment and to explore any form that’s appropriate for their work. They’re given unlimited freedom ““ they just can’t do anything totally illegal,” Drucker said.
Aside from other video artists and photographers, the open studios will feature a number of painters, installation artists and sculptors. The evening will also include a multi-genre performance choreographed by students Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Kydd said. “There’s a great momentum in the studio right now. We can’t wait to see who comes ““ we hope everybody comes.”